


Table Manners

by frozenCinders



Category: OFF (Game)
Genre: CSRverse, Gen, don't look at me i've fallen and i can't get up, three brothers. makin a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24936871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenCinders/pseuds/frozenCinders
Summary: Sometime before the end, Celeste treats the Batters to a homemade dinner.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	Table Manners

**Author's Note:**

> hi! if you're here without knowing what csr is, then i'm sorry. also please play csr

"I know it's not much, but I made it with love," Celeste says as she sets the table with four identical plates. On each is a cut of steak with a side of green beans-- simple, and for her, nostalgic.

"Food's food. Thanks," the Batter says. He sits at the table and his brothers follow suit, offering their respective reluctant and enthusiastic thanks as well. Maybe reluctant isn't the right word, it's just that Ghost gets oddly quiet when he actually has something nice to say.

"Really didn't have to do this shit. Don't you dare feel like it has to happen again," Ghost tells Celeste when she takes the seat across from him. To one with thinner skin, or who doesn't know him as well, maybe his words would be taken as insulting, threatening. Celeste only smiles.

"It can happen as many times as you'd like."

"Can it be steak as many times as we'd like?" Bad asks.

"Get some fucking variety in your diet for once, shitball. Eat something besides bloody fucking meat."

"There's variety right here! See?"

Bad picks up a green bean to show Ghost, who sneers at it like it somehow managed to insult him.

"Seeee?"

Ah, Ghost must not like green beans, judging by the way Bad is teasing him now. Celeste will file that away in case this does happen again.

"Feel free to start eating," Celeste says, picking her fork up.

The two of them simultaneously oblige just as the Batter asks Ghost a question about "Alpha" and his opinions on the "add-ons". Celeste quickly learns that the Batter's brothers are quite messy eaters.

In Bad's case, she can hardly blame him-- it must be difficult to be neat with a mouth like that. For Ghost, at least he glances down occasionally to make sure he's not dropping anything on the floor, even if his hands and face are caked in unnecessary amounts of sauce, juice, and crumbs where he picks at his food and doesn't bother cutting it into small enough pieces.

The Batter hasn't started eating yet, too absorbed in the conversation he's having with Ghost, who doesn't bother reciprocating his focus just to refrain from talking with his mouth full. Celeste easily figures the Batter will be the neat one, being the most human. She doesn't even think about it, just makes an unconscious assumption. Why would she be wrong?

Maybe that's why a sigh escapes her when the Batter finally starts his meal by _grabbing the steak with his hands_ and biting into the end of it, utensils untouched.

"Use your fuckin' fork, shit for dick. Even the doucheduck is doing it, see?" Ghost scolds him.

"Oh," is the Batter's response. The only change he makes to his behavior is to pick the entire steak up with his fork and continue nibbling at the edges without cutting it.

"Fucking hopeless," Ghost grumbles.

Quietly, and with nothing but love in her heart, Celeste laughs. They're like children; three sweet brothers who don't get along but know they're better off sticking together. She hasn't seen the worst of it, but she knows they butt heads like nobody's business, especially Ghost and Bad. She's noticed that the Batter has an occasional uncharacteristic streak of provocation, just to see if he can figure out how to feel something when he's hit a low point, but he still comes off as the most well-behaved.

Then again, she did misestimate his table manners. These boys aren't hers to mother; she already abandoned her one chance at motherhood, so she tries to keep her fretting and fussing to a minimum. In a dream once, Ghost sarcastically referred to her as "mom", halting the dreamscape in its tracks and fading its scenery to empty white for the short time it took for her to wake up. A bittersweet smile had graced her tired face, then.

Her smile now is more sweet than bitter, as she watches the way Bad's shoulders shake when he laughs and Ghost seems to fight with his own mouth with every expression he makes. It takes her this long to notice, too, that the Batter cracks a different eye open every time he looks at them. She'd wondered at first if he really had four to choose from or if she was just looking at him wrong.

When they finish eating and thank her again, Celeste urges the Batters to wash their hands and their faces before they leave.

"We're not FUCKING ANIMALS, fuck," Ghost gripes, before quickly correcting himself with "well, except cocktot over here."

"Cocktot, that's a new one. What's the poetic meaning behind that one?" Bad asks.

"It means go fuck yourself."

"Well--"

"No, I'm not hearing this again," the Batter interrupts. "Just wash your hands."

"Before or after?"

"Oh. My fucking. God."

Celeste's laugh is loud enough to be heard this time, and she expects Ghost to pester her for it, but the boys let her be.

As they leave, Celeste feels a bit like she's losing her son again. Criminal that the first thought that flies to comfort her is "I'll see them again in no time," and not "They aren't my children."

In the first place, it had been Celeste's own foolish choice to abandon her child. This time, she just can't seem to stay away, as if she's making up for lost time.

Her smile is more bitter than sweet now.


End file.
